2ND EDITION | ISSUE #173

Hey Reader,

You may have noticed this Newsletter is hitting your inbox on a Monday instead of its typical/not so typical lately Wednesday send. Back in the first 100 issues of this newsletter - it was a Monday send and somewhere along the way I decided to switch it up - and long story short, I’m moving back to Mondays again!

To kick off our Monday send - I’m comin’ in HOT - and I’m talking real HOT. 93 degrees in my car with black leather seats and no working AC on the ride home today, HOT. Which, if you are wondering, is pretty abnormal for my corner of Western New York, where it was SNOWING only two weeks ago.

And although I don’t remember Spring ever getting here, Summer has officially arrived.

And so here I am, walking into 7 Eleven to grab a drink on the way home this afternoon PRAYING that there is no visible sweat on my butt.

But amazingly, my pits were not that bad… and I swear this has something to do with my newsletter and your brand this week - just stay with me.

I don’t know what it is - but as soon as I turned 30, I started to sweat like I had never sweat before in my life.

Deodorant decided to just no longer work for me.

Like I had a stick in my glove compartment and my purse at all times, + each floor of the house “no longer work for me”.

It was a constant annoyance, and even though I was using the exact same men's deodorant as Kyle, thinking that if it works for him, it’s gotta help me out - nope, it still didn’t work.

With an entire summer of wearing white around the corner - I decided enough was enough, and wait for it….

Tried a different deodorant.

Why do we do that??

Keep trying to solve our problem the exact same way as somebody else - because we “know” it works for them. Even though there is literally 0 evidence that it works for us.

Ever.

Like, at all.

Then, finally, we see the light of day and discover that there is, in fact a better solution that solves the problem.

For me, that solution has been - this new deodorant #lifechanger #weddingseasonhereicome.

And it got me thinking about just how we approach solving problems behind the scenes of our brands.

After publishing 173 newsletters of my own, not to mention designing dozens and dozens of newsletter templates and strategies for clients, and managing a newsletter and email strategy for one of my retainer clients with almost 8 thousand subscribers, I guess it's time I come out and call myself an expert when it comes to email marketing for your brand.

And behind the scenes, I’ve been talking to a lot of brands like yours Readerwho…

• Have an email list - maybe even thousands of people on an email list, who they aren’t sending to or communicating with
• Have built an email list off of ads, or a free funnel of some kind - but then just never sent people anything off of it
• Have emailed their list intermittently - but don’t really have a set format, or understand the difference between sales emails and sequences, vs. a newsletter.

And maybe even…

• Inputting subscribers manually from one platform to another
• Using different colors, fonts, and branding on every email - or sequence
• Ready to launch and sell an offer to an email list that doesn’t know them, or anything about that offer.

And while I could hypothetically turn this newsletter into a masterclass on email marketing for your brand - that would be well, really freaking long. Because there is a lot to unpack.

And quite frankly - there is so much nuance within it, that much like my deodorant. What works for you, or for me - might not work for someone else or vice versa.

So for the sake of sticking to a newsletter format in my own right - this week I want to talk about how to position your newsletter as its own offer in your brand - so it becomes a working piece of your brand and content strategy as a whole. And not just another thing on your to-do list.

How to position & design your brand's newsletter

First & foremost, I want to get one thing clear - because I swear I’ve had 5 clients this year be confused on this part.

Just sending your email list an email from Flodesk or Convertkit - does not mean it is a newsletter.

Email marketing = sending your clients/customers emails that help to market your offers or services.

There are all different types of emails within email marketing as a whole that serve different purposes for different brands.

Your email marketing strategy needs to do 2 things in the grand scheme of things.

1. Nurture
2. Sell

And the different kinds of emails you send fall within that spectrum

On the sales side of things, we have:

• Abandoned Cart email sequences
• Open Cart/ Launch Day & Launch Sequences
• E-commerce sales emails for products & sales, or discounts

The Main Goal of these emails is to convert to a sale.

On the Nurture end of the spectrum, we have a newsletter

The Main goal of your newsletter is to add value and nurture the relationship with the reader.

That doesn’t mean you can’t sell in your newsletter. But the whole point of that newsletter is not selling. Its just an added bonus.

And in the middle you have things like

• Freebie or product delivery sequences
• Welcome email sequences

Now before you go stressing thinking you need all of these things - don’t.

I REPEAT. YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE ALL THESE THINGS IN PLACE.

Especially, to have a newsletter.

But understanding the different elements of email marketing helps you to figure out if sending a newsletter even makes sense for you & your brand.

Because newsletters may not make sense for everyone or every audience.

For example, the first thing that comes to mind is my Wedding photographer.

She technically has my email on a list and has sent me a few bits and bobs of valuable content, like a guide, and available add-ons.

I can see a welcome email sequence working, or even one of sales emails with discounts on things like albums or add-ons.

But if she had a newsletter that she sent with wedding advice every week - well that may be nice In the short term, but once my wedding has passed - I would really have no use for that content anymore.

So after 6 months, I would leave her list.

And so would most people. And it would never really build. Or for that matter be a valuable use of her time because she has already made the sale once she gets my email address, so what is there to nurture?

Now - if she was pivoting into educating other photographers - and wanted to create a newsletter about that, that would make sense for her audience.

This is where understanding your audience & positioning your newsletter as its own offer within your brand go hand in hand.

Because I don’t know about you - but my inbox has gotten even fuller than usual lately. And ive hit that unsubscribe button more than ever before.

If I know that you have solutions that are going to work for my problems - and that I am going to take something valuable away from your newsletter each week - ill save that sucker for 10 days until I can get around to reading it. No matter how long it is.

How to become a "Save for later newsletter" in someone else's inbox

First and foremost - name your newsletter, make it its own thing. That way - it is easier to refer to and talk about in your content, and stories as a whole.

Second - define the audience. Who is reading this newsletter and what do they want to get out of it each week in order to stay in your inbox? What problems are they looking to solve?

When it comes to the Behind The Brand Newsletter - I know that my readers really want to love their branding, and feel confident about it - so that they feel confident about marketing their business.

But they also want to work smarter, not harder in they way they go about it.

They want to understand how things work - so they can manage their brand and marketing on their own - and know when something Is out of their scope or zone of genuis and it is time to outsource.

If you need help defining your audience - i’ve got a free 3 step brand audit you can use here.​

Third - define how you nurture. This is the newest one in my arsenal. And for the sake of this newsletter and the whole point I am trying to make - the most important.

Do me a favor real quick.

And feel free to save this email for later and come back with a notebook.

But close your eyes.

Imagine you are walking into your favorite coffee shop to meet up with a new business/clientish friend. Someone you would like to get to know better but aren't on a 4 am text or giph only conversation with yet.

You sit down with that someone at a table and start chatting.

How do you start that conversation?

Do you dive into a tangent or a story? Or take a minute to greet them and catch up on life for a minute? There is no right or wrong answer here - just take note of what you would do in that situation.

Okay - so now I’m going to ask you to stretch your imagination a little further.

Let’s say you know they have a problem that you know exactly how to solve. They are still figuring out what solution is going to be best for them.

How do you talk with them about their problem? How would you lay out your solution? Take note.

Now imagine - you’ve talked work/business stuff - and laid out your solution, what happens next in the convo? Small talk? Asking them questions? Again - this is not a one-size-fits-all - I want you to think about how you communicate with someone naturally.

What would you do if I wanted to build trust with someone each week? As if I were interacting with them 1:1?

How would you guide the conversation? What else would you do?

This is exactly the exercise I took one of my recent Studio Session clients, Devon, through when we were unpacking how a newsletter would best serve her communication style & audience.

And here is where we start to put things together.

Using Devon as an example again, For the first question - how she would start the conversation, Devon shared that she likes to ask a lot of questions. So when it came time to start putting together her Newsletter template, the first section, the introduction or greeting of every one of her newsletters, is going to start with a question.

Blocking out your newsletter format based on how YOU communicate vs. what most people (myself included) tend to do = the solution to boxing yourself in creatively when it comes to your newsletter (I started to unpack this in my most recent Substack Article)

You only need two things to design your newsletter

when it comes to the design of your newsletter - there are really only two things you need.

#1 A Brand Color Scheme that you know how to implement.

Keywords - that you know how to implement.

I avoid smack-talking designers cuz ya know, there's plenty of room for us all - but if there was one thing that I really had to nitpick that I see all the time from other designers & in brand kits that clients send me is brand colors that look fine on paper - but in reality, you can only use them in a couple of different combinations. You have maybe 1 or two that work as background colors. 1 decent option for a font - and a bunch of other colors you don’t know what to do with at all.

So you end up randomly adding other colors in willy-nilly to make it work and make everything not feel so blah… which really just means wasting time clicking around a color picker every time you design something for your brand.

When it comes to your newsletter - I recommend having 4 colors SAVED in Flodesk, or Convertkit (or wherever you send your emails from).

1 color = your Primary neutral, as I call it in The Brand Color Kit (my pay-what-you-want resource designed to help you unf**k your brand color scheme and understand how to implement it - something AI just can’t teach you).​

You are currently looking at Cascade - my primary neutral for Cedar June - which is really not all that groundbreaking, it is an off-white, and my go-to for most text-heavy sections.

2 - Next up, you have your primary font color - this color needs to be in high contrast compared to your primary background - Mine is called Alger.

*(which is honestly pro tip #1 of this email because even if you are totally soloprenuering life - I promise naming your colors will come in hand the moment you hire someone to help with literally ANYTHING instead of having to direct them to change the color to the darker hot pink hue etc.)

3 - A high key pop of color that you can use to highlight sections like this - or as a way to draw the eye & attention to a call to action button like the one below.

4 - finally, this one is kind of extra credit - but I like to throw one, or two more colors in the mix that can be assigned to headings to serve as another visual speed bump so to say - that slows the skimmer down and allows your brain to note different sections.

Okay now that you have the first thing you need - your newsletter's brand color scheme - now it's time for #2 Fonts.

This is where you can really start to overthink things, because if you use something like ConvertKit - you can’t upload your own fonts in. And on FloDesk - you can only use custom fonts on some sections.

So let me make this easy on you.

There are a few different types of fonts you need to understand

Serif, Sans Serif, and Decorative fonts.

No one wants to read a paragraph full, much less three lines full, of a decorative font. Lots of brands use a more decorative font - like a handwritten curtive, or something more funky and blocky for their logo. But as far a place in your newsletter goes - it really only works in short section headings, or as the newsletter logo - all things you can make as JPEGS and upload as images into your newsletter template but if I am already losing you just know that is EXTRA CREDIT and so not necessary if you are DIYing it.

Then you have serif vs. sans serif.

Serif fonts like the ones you are looking at right now have additional lines, or serifs, added to the end of strokes that make them feel a little more traditional, or bookish, but are also the easiest for people to read and most often used in publishing.

Sans serif means there are no lines added to the end of the strokes, and these fonts can be perceived as more modern and are often used in on screens, websites, and online.

*you may also see mono as a font family, which means that each letter in the font takes up the same amount of space. Typewriter style fonts, that feel vintage as well as most fonts used in the tech world and coding, are monospaced fonts.

If your brand fonts are not available on your email marketing platform, all you need to do is locate which family your brand fonts are in - and then find the closest font to it on your email marketing provider.

Right now - you are reading this paragraph font in New York - when really my paragraph font is Masquerlo. and I promise you - this is the first time you’ve thought about it - much less cared.

For more help with brand fonts and combining font families - grab the recording from my 2D design masterclass, where I teach the basics behind everything you want in your brand kit.

Behind The Screen - Design A Newsletter Template With Me

So now you know the format of what you are going to talk about, and the elements you need to make it look good - all there’s left to do is build the template itself.

I figure I could tell you - or I could show you how easy it is to build an email template in my two favorite email platforms for solopreneurs - ConvertKit & Flodesk.​

I love recording these Loom tutorials so much that I am going to start posting them on YouTube! But for now - ya gotta click the loom :)

​Click here to watch how to design your newsletter template in ConvertKit​

​And click here to watch how to build your Newsletter template in Flodesk​